Google parent Alphabet’s profit hit by EU fine

Alphabet made $3.5bn in net income in the second quarter – down 28% from $4.9bn in the same period last year.

PROFITS at Google’s parent company Alphabet have taken a hit by the record fine imposed by the European Commission on the search giant last month for breaching competition rules.

Alphabet, which also owns YouTube, said it made $3.5bn (£2.7bn) in net income on sales of $26bn (£19bn) in the three months to the end of June – revenues were up 21% compared to the same period last year.

The profit – which was down 28% from $4.9bn (£3.7bn) in the same quarter last year – would have been much larger but for the $2.7bn (£2.1bn) fine.

Google was fined for abusing its dominance as a search engine to boost its shopping comparison service.

The European competition watchdog said the company had breached anti-trust rules.

It said Google’s search engine had systematically given prominence to its own comparison shopping service over others, so that it was displayed at or near the top of search results.

The company was ordered to end the conduct at the centre of the European Commission investigation or face penalty payments of up to 5% of the average daily turnover of Alphabet.

Google said it disagreed with the finding and Alphabet has been mulling an appeal. news.sky.com